But if Ortegel is not stewing just a little inside these days, his broadcast partners through 23 NBA seasons should not have referred to him as “Coach.”

“Saint” would have been more appropriate.

Ortegel, who is 70 years old, sat in a Mavericks television analyst’s seat since Nov. 26, 1988. He officially lost that seat this week in a silly game of musical chairs orchestrated by owner Mark Cuban.

Cuban has every right to have his employees dance to his music. But pulling Ortegel’s seat midseason in order to “freshen” up his team’s broadcasts makes little sense.

Who is replacing Ortegel? Brad Davis and Derek Harper? They best served the organization as point guards. Cuban tried switching Davis from radio to television back in 2007. Ortegel dutifully moved to radio. That fresh idea lasted one season.

When the Mavericks told Ortegel they were again replacing him on television, they offered him several other jobs in the organization, including a return to his radio seat next to Chuck Cooperstein. Ortegel took 10 days away from the team, missing five games, to mull the offer.

This time, he decided he didn’t want to change jobs.

“It was a different deal last time, the switch was for a whole season,” Ortegel said. “This just felt different. I am a big believer in following my instincts. This time they told me not to do it.”

Still, he professes his admiration for Cuban and the Mavericks.

“I kind of grew up with that organization,” Ortegel said over the phone Friday morning. “My relationship with the Mavericks will be good whether I am an employee or not.”

Actually, Ortegel was a basketball grownup long before the Mavericks invited him to join the organization. The team was looking for a replacement for the recently-hired Bob Weiss, who left abruptly to join the Orlando Magic as an assistant coach. They asked Ortegel to fill in for an early season game against the Utah Jazz on a November night in 1988.

Ortegel had played college basketball at Bradley. He later served as an assistant coach at Illinois State and Drake. He was head coach at Drake from 1974 to 1981. When his coaching days were over, he slid into a college basketball analyst’s seat, working games in the Missouri Valley and Southwest conferences. He also worked games for ESPN and ABC.

On the day Mavericks president Norm Sonju called Ortegel, asking him to replace Weiss on an HSE cable broadcast, Ortegel told him he couldn’t work that Mavericks-Jazz game. He had a previous commitment to a noon game between Baylor and Texas A&M.

No problem, Sonju told him. He still could be at Reunion Arena by that evening’s tip time.

But I don’t know all the NBA rules, Ortegel said.

Study a rule book when you get to the arena, Sonju said.

And so began Ortegel’s love affair with the Mavericks.

On the air, he worked with Allen Stone and Jim Durham and Matt Pinto and Mark Followill. Stone and Durham were veterans. Pinto and Followill were up and comers. Ortegel worked smoothly with all. Those times his analysis drifted to the critical, he was more professorial than ranter.

He was always a loyal ambassador for the team. No one could have made more speaking engagements than Oretgel.

And now, poof, he’s gone. Refreshing? For whom?

Unless, of course, Cuban decides to re-refresh. Can Ortegel see himself working for the Mavericks again?

“Absolutely, that possibility always exists,” he said. “I love the Mavericks. How can I not?”

March Saneness?

We already knew CBS is teaming with cable’s TNT, TBS and truTV to provide 67 NCAA Tournament games for all America to glaze over come March.

Now, CBS and Turner are telling us how the college hoopfest will work.

CBS will have 26 games while TBS will have 16, truTV 13, and TNT 12.

Of course, while we might need four television sets to watch all the games, we can at long last rest assured that every game can be seen in just about every cable home in America. No longer will alums and fans be blacked out or forced to watch online.

“We're trying to give fans what they want,” said Christina Miller, Turner's senior vice president for programming. “If they want to have four TV's going, that's great. If they want to move between games, they can. They can customize their experience.”

A quick glance at the schedule shows the Tournament’s first four games on Tuesday, March 15, and Wednesday, March 16, have been delegated to truTV. On Thursday and Friday, which each feature 16 games, there will be four games on each of the four networks. Tipoff is 11 a.m. on CBS. There will be a two-hour break from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and then more basketball. TBS and TNT will offer their games non-stop while truTV will have a break similar to CBS.

The whole idea is to never have two games end at the same time.

The four network divide continues through Rounds 3 and 4 with CBS and TBS sharing the four regionals and CBS soloing at the Final Four.

Rugby anyone?

With the NFL in mothballs, NBC and its Universal Sports cable sibling are hoping they can attract full-contact fans to its seven-on-seven rugby telecasts on Saturday and Sunday.

NBC and Universal are going all in with 15 hours of coverage of the USA Sevens International Rugby Championship from Las Vegas.

Participating teams include the United States, England, France, Samoa, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Kenya and Scotland.